


shadows don't die in the dark

by bluemoone



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:02:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24663535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemoone/pseuds/bluemoone
Summary: Catra’s never felt entirely alone in her life - not in the physical sense. She’s always felt the eyes on her, eyes the color of blood, marking her every move. All of the Horde kids would whisper about how she could hear their thoughts, and even now her shadows haunted Catra in the caverns of her mind. Who’s to say that she wasn’t still watching them from some other hellish dimension? Catra wondered if Adora wondered the same.Shadow Weaver. Their only caretaker. Their first tormentor. The sight of her scorching herself into dust branded into their memory.-or, Catra and Adora speak Shadow Weaver’s name for the first time after her sacrifice.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 157





	shadows don't die in the dark

_cruel mothers are still mothers.  
_ _they make us wars.  
_ _they make us revolution.  
_ _they teach us the truth, early.  
_ _mothers are humans, who  
_ _sometimes give birth to their pain, instead of  
_ _children._

_\--_ **_hate_** _, nayyirah waheed_

* * *

_i know i cannot heal the hurt  
_ _but i will hold you here forever  
_ _if i can, if i can._

_\--_ **_exist for love_ ,** _aurora_

Catra’s always hated mornings. For a plethora of reasons.

It used to be because, well, who could actually enjoy waking up at the crack of dawn to run morning drills? (And Adora didn’t count. She was just a freak.)

After Adora defected, mornings became a new kind of torture - to rise out of oblivion and once again be hit by newfound heartbreak in paralyzing waves. First, the absence of her best friend’s body heat. Then being urged out of bed by a whistle in lieu of a whiny, pleading “Come _on_ , Catra. I mean it! I’m not covering for you this time.” (Spoiler alert: She’d cover for her.) Later, eating her breakfast ration bars alone in the silence of her room, nothing but the clanging of pipes in the walls to keep her company. Scorpia would eventually join her, but it just...wasn’t the same, and that only served to infuriate Catra further. 

She could see the ghost of Adora everywhere she went - from the barracks to the forge to the warehouses to the locker room to the overhang. The memories of her flooded Catra’s senses. Every corridor she walked down, she could see projections of the two of them racing against each other in the corner of her eye. 

On one rare occasion Catra had gotten enough of a lead on Adora to take cover against the wall just in time for Adora to round the corner, her face hard set with determination. All Catra had to do was sneakily stick her foot out to send the blonde sprawling to the ground with a resounding “oof!” Naturally, Catra immediately pounced on her slighted friend and howled her squeaky cackle. “I can’t believe you fell for that! Literally.” 

And Adora would grumble and give her _that_ look. The look that said, _you drive me crazy, but I’m stuck with you forever. We’re never getting rid of each other._

Another fond memory. Another stab in the heart. She hated that she could be so filled with a person that when they left her, she was left empty, and Catra found herself dreaming up ways to make peaceful oblivion a permanent situation. 

Sleep eventually became foreign to her in her last days in the Horde. Dusk blurred into dawn and sun up, sun down - whatever, it was all the same to her. Somehow it all faded to grey, anyway.

But now mornings felt different. New. They felt warm and kind of - sweet. She slept in a bed so cushiony it made her feel like she was drowning, but in a good way, sort of. Golden sunlight filtered through the lavender curtains in their room, and Catra would find herself mesmerized by the floating bits basking in the rays in the window. She’d never slept in a room with so much light before - much less light that wasn’t artificially fluorescent - but it was easy to get used to. Almost _too_ easy. 

_I wasn’t supposed to win._

Sometimes Catra couldn’t help but feel like all of this wasn’t real. Like she was simply watching someone else’s life happen to her. Good things weren’t just bestowed upon her, so something had to have gone terribly and wonderfully wrong for this to happen. 

A light snore brought her into a more aware state of consciousness, and her sleepy eyes focused on the sleeping blonde beside her. 

Adora - her terrible and wonderful thing. 

Adora was just... _good_. For a long time, she was the only good Catra had ever known though, for most of her life goodness and “doing the right thing” were merely concepts. Cool - comforting, even - to hear about in children’s stories, but completely irrelevant and useless in real life until recently. 

Her first shot at this “good” thing set Catra on a course she could have never predicted. She could have easily been left on Prime’s ship, drowning in the echoes of a million lifeless, enslaved thoughts, her own among them. She could be dead, and what once felt like her only happy ending now sends her spiraling. 

Somehow, she made it here. In the palace at Bright Moon, of all places, a kingdom she used to dream of seeing reduced to ashes, with the woman she once despised, yet always loved more than anything just drooling - sleeping uncharacteristically soundly - onto the pillow like the woman laying next to her didn’t nearly end reality at one point.

 _Yeah, this can’t be real_ , she thought.

“What can’t?”

Oh, no. Fuck. She’d said that out loud. Catra flipped on her side away from Adora to hide her embarrassment. “Uh, nothing. Go back to sleep.” The palace was still quiet, so it was safe to assume it was still early. 

Adora didn’t open her eyes, but she wrapped a secure arm around Catra’s waist to pull her closer. Casual touches they were starved of for so long came pouring in. It's a marvel they went so long without them. “Well, I can’t now. You were talking so loud.” 

Catra scoffed and tried mentally willing away the warmth growing in her cheeks. It was sickening how adorable Adora’s voice sounded when it was slurred with the remains of her drowsiness. “I was not! You’re just a freakishly light sleeper.”

“Oh, you’re one to talk,” Adora snorted. 

“Yeah, I _am_ one to talk!” Catra’s ear flicked at the sound of a sharp inhale behind her. Adora’s hand soon found hers, and Catra’s clenched fist unravelled immediately upon contact to let her in. Catra decided she earned face-to-face privilege and turned around. 

If she had to pick a favorite version of Adora, this would be it - her tousled hair spilling over her face and shoulders, her clothes rumpled after a night of being tangled up in each other, free from the obligation of presentation and pomp and circumstance. Just Adora in her natural, unsophisticated glory. 

“Hey…” Adora smiled softly before pulling Catra’s knuckles to meet her lips. Finally, her lids floated open to meet her girlfriend’s narrowed eyes. “Good morning.” 

“Morning.” Catra, ignoring the flutter in her chest, tugged at the pillow where Adora’s pool of saliva sat. “How’d you sleep? Pretty good, I take it?” 

Adora’s other hand retreated to the back of her neck, and she chuckled bashfully. “Yeah, guess I did.”

Catra stroked her chin. “Maybe I should start sleeping at the foot of the bed again.” 

“Pssh, oh, please, you wouldn't last a night.” She was absolutely right, but that smug tone of hers was giving Catra second thoughts.

Her head lurched forward in a challenge. “You sure about that?” 

Adora mirrored her movement. “Oh, I’m sure.”

“Don’t get too cocky. I have Melog to curl up next to, and who are you gonna cuddle with? _Swift Wind?_ ” Catra smirked and raised an eyebrow.

Adora paused and frowned at the thought. Choosing not to answer that, she propped herself up on her elbow and rested her jaw on her hand. “Riiiight, because I definitely can’t compete with a shapeshifting alien cat, can I? I mean, can Melog do this?” She leaned down and brushed her lips against Catra’s, and Catra didn’t waste much time in deepening it. 

“If they can, I don’t wanna know about it.” Catra said in a low voice when they finally broke. Adora snickered, and soon Catra joined her. “So...what do ya wanna do today?” Adora liked structure. Catra knew that. So even though the wars were over, the two still found themselves adhering to game plans and tentative schedules to provide some semblance of normalcy. 

“Oh!” Adora clapped her hands together and sat up in bed. “On the agenda today, we have brunch with the Crystal Council, and then a one hour break followed by the renovation of The Fr- I mean, Scorpia’s kingdom, and then we get to demolish stuff!” Adora let out a goofy little chortle. Her fists pumped, and her eyes blazed with excitement, but the way Catra stiffened didn’t go unnoticed.

“Oh, uh, actually, I can’t go. I forgot I-I told Castapella that I’d help her plan our going away party today.” The words stumbled out awkwardly, but Catra kept her cool and her gaze steady. 

“Oh, yeah?” A strong dark brow rose.

 _Nice going, genius._ Now she was going to have to track down Sparkles’s insufferable aunt and tell her that they were planning the going away party today. “Yeah,” she retorted, a little too defensive and pushed up into a straighter sitting position.

“Well…” Adora sounded somewhat disappointed and somewhat...something else. “Guess we’ll have to make this time count then.” 

Their fingers intertwined as their knees knocked into each other as their foreheads met. Catra took inventory of every point of contact. “Guess we will.” Catra half-grinned and took a gentle hold of Adora’s chin and ran her thumb over the plush pink of her bottom lip. 

Adora puckered her lips to place a lingering kiss on the pad before leaning forward to place them somewhere even better, and Catra responded in kind. Adora gripped the back of Catra’s thigh to drape it across her own body, but she soon craved more weight and effortlessly pulled her up by the waist so that Catra was fully perched on her lap. The former warrior let her hands wander her lithe body as their tongues spoke this new, enthralling language. 

Catra’s hands explored the plane of Adora’s back. She didn’t understand how her body could be this solid when her lips were so damn soft. The pure contrast did something to her that words couldn’t explain, but there it was - the electrifying clench happening deep beneath her belly - and when Adora’s fingers grazed that special spot on her lower back, Catra thought she was going to lose it. 

The way Catra responded to her every touch was magical. Adora really wished she could keep it going for longer, but she had information to extract as soon as the moment presented itself. The once-cynical commander was becoming an easy read and dare Adora say, getting _soft_ (to her delight). She tore from Catra’s lips to trail kisses along her jaw, and then further down to nip at her neck. And for a moment, Adora doubted herself. After all, Catra’s hands were gripping in her hair and Catra’s hips were moving in this really amazing way and the sounds Catra was making could’ve launched her into outer space right then and there. So for a moment, _just_ a moment, Adora thought maybe she could let it go, but who was she kidding? She dragged her lips down, pausing just above the curve of Catra’s chest and letting her tongue graze her skin ever so lightly before stopping altogether and looking up at her lover who was yet to catch on. “You’re not as good a liar as you think you are.” Adora's tone was all knowing. 

Catra’s own mouth betrayed her by gaping open, then slamming shut again. _Ha, she’s strategic._ Trapping her while her defenses are down? Commendable, but still a dick move. Catra quickly schooled her face into aloof ignorance. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she brushed off and then placed her hands on either side of Adora’s head to bring their lips together again. They had such a good thing going. No need to ruin it. 

Adora dutifully obliged until, “You don’t want to go to Scorpia’s kingdom, do you?” she asked when she could gather enough air to do so. 

“No talking. More kissing.” Catra demanded, without breaking their connection.

“What? I thought- you two- were good now?” Adora could barely get the words out without her mouth being smothered.

Catra’s lifted Adora’s chin, and her now intensely annoyed gaze was set directly on her mouth in a show of inspection. “Uh, is this thing broken?” She tapped Adora’s reddened lips with a clawed finger for good measure. “‘Cause it’s not doing what I asked.”

Adora sputtered and grabbed Catra’s wrists to pin them to the bed, forcing her on her back in the process with Adora hovering above her. Their faces remained mere inches away from each other. “Uh, you didn’t _ask_ , and my mouth isn’t doing anything until you answer its question, er, _my_ question.” 

Grunts of protest faded into hums of delighted pleasure. “Honestly, you pinning me down is even more fun than the other way around.” She slowly licked her lips and tilted her chin up, in hopes of coaxing Adora back down. 

The blonde’s face became pensive. “Hm. I’ll take that into account for another time, but Catra…” Her voice was breathless but laced with concern and impatience. “Talk to me.” She released her grip on Catra’s wrist, but didn’t move otherwise. 

Now that the mood was officially ruined, Catra frowned and turned her head to the side. “Adora. Let. It. Go.” 

“Nope. Not this time.”

“Adora!”

_“Catra!”_

“Ugh,” Catra reached for one of the bed’s many pillows with the intent of covering her face and blocking out everything - the room, the light, Adora’s stupid, worried face, but Adora was quicker. 

She swiftly snatched the pillow from her grasp and tossed it away carelessly. “Come on, Catra. We have to talk to each other.” 

Catra bristled and every muscle in her body tensed. What she really wanted to do was toss Adora off of her and storm out the room. Because she didn’t _owe_ Adora any explanation, she didn’t owe anyone _anything_ , so if Adora would just _lay off_ , that’d be _great_ before she-

But she took a deep, slow, measured breath and muttered, “Fine. You’re right. I don’t want to go back to the Fright Zone, ok?”

“But it’s not the Fright Zone, anymore, you know that. It’s D’reamia now. Or as Scorpia likes to call it: The uh- the Hug Zone.” Adora offered. Her optimistic reassurance was coming up half-baked.

To be honest, Scorpia did still make Catra nervous. It felt like a trick that she could forgive her so easily after everything - like seeing lightning and bracing for thunder that would never come. Surely, there had to be something harboring in there, but that wasn't the problem. “I know what she calls it, but get real, it’ll always be the Fright Zone, and every time we go, it’ll be a painful reminder of every awful thing that’s happened there. And don’t tell me I'll have to look at that hideous runestone they’ll put on display.” 

_The Black Garnet..._

Suddenly the room felt darker. “Catra...is this about…” Adora sat back on her heels. 

Neither of the two had been able to bring themselves to speak her name, not in the two weeks since the end of the war. Not since… Catra feared that if she did, this spell would be lifted. All the good she’s managed to bring into her life would be violently and mercilessly ripped away from her by some vicious vortex, or _portal_. Or by the hag herself. 

Catra’s never felt entirely alone in her life - not in the physical sense. She’s always felt the eyes on her, eyes the color of blood, marking her every move. All of the Horde kids would whisper about how she could hear their thoughts, and even now her shadows haunted Catra in the caverns of her mind. Who’s to say that she wasn’t still watching them from some other hellish dimension? Catra wondered if Adora wondered the same. 

Shadow Weaver. Their only caretaker. Their first tormentor. The sight of her scorching herself into dust branded into their memory. 

Catra sighed, defeated. “I wanted her out of our lives for good. But I didn’t want her dead.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “And now she’s gone, and I should be glad she’s gone, but I just- I just-” Her words died on her tongue, and suddenly her skin felt hot and her throat tightened and the air felt thin and she felt trapped under the weight of Adora’s legs. Catra thrashed underneath her, until Adora let up enough to give her enough room for her to bring her knees to chest and lock her arms around them with an iron grip. 

“Hey, Catra, it’s ok-” Adora’s hand reached out to her purely on instinct but stopped short. 

Catra wasn’t listening. Not really. Not when she could barely hear over the sound of her own breathing, the turbulence ringing in her ears. She glared at an undefined point in the room and emitted a long and forceful groan. “Adora, I think I need to hit something,” she seethed. Her claws dug into her skin.

“I think you just need to let it out...” Adora soothed, finding tiny comfort in knowing she wasn’t the only punch-your-feelings-out guy in the household anymore. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of damageable property in the residence. She made a mental note to propose installing punching bags to Glimmer. For insurance or, uh, liability purposes. But right now, her objective was to neutralize the sometimes emotional ticking time bomb that was her girlfriend. 

“I need to let it out by _hitting something_.” 

The crack and desperation in Catra’s voice shattered Adora, and it was subtle, but she could tell Catra was shaking. It transported her back to comforting Catra when they were kids right after she’d just been punished for getting a little too curious, a little too rowdy, a little too comfortable. “Catra, look at me,” Adora commanded in the softest way possible. It took a second, but Catra did as she was told. “Just talk to me.” The corners of her lips curled into a tiny, encouraging smile. “I‘m here for you.”

_I am so proud of you, Catra._

“I just don’t know how to-” Catra had never heard her robust and commanding voice sound so grave and earnest. The closest she’d come to that was right before she’d abandoned her in the Fright Zone. As it turns out, Shadow Weaver’s affection was just as painful as her malice.

_Insolent child..._

_You have never been anything more than a nuisance to me._

_I will dispose of you myself._

_You’ve always been a disappointment._

_I just wanted to prepare you for the world. I wanted you to be strong._

_You remind me of myself. You always have._

_I am so proud of you, Catra._

Catra’s face scrunched, and she grinded her teeth together, wishing to tear the words away from her. “Why?” she burst out to no one in particular. “Why did she _say_ that? I mean, did she think she was doing me a favor?”

_...You’re welcome._

“Why could she only ever stand to love me when she knew she was leaving me?” Catra questioned the air, deflated, her eyes hollow but tears slipping away from them with abandon. Had she always been so hard to love? Some people were just born that way, she guessed, to be cast off by the hand that made you. Tentative blue and gold eyes drifted towards the woman across from her giving her what could only be called the saddest look in the entire universe. Catra wanted to smack it away. Or kiss it away. Get if off by any means necessary. 

“Oh, Catra…” Coherent and eloquent thoughts left Adora as she pulled Catra into her chest and didn’t budge when she half-heartedly fought against them before succumbing.

“What if she was going to change- what if we- what if I-” Catra felt pathetic, but the fingers stroking her hair and the rhythm of the heartbeat against her ear felt like an anchor.

“Manipulation was Shadow Weaver’s thing, remember? She hurt you. She was never going to change, and the only person she could ever love was herself.” It was as if Adora knew exactly what to say, as if she rehearsed them in her mind over and over again, cherry-picked them to perfection.

Catra craned her head to bore Adora’s cloudy blue eyes. “She hurt _you_ , too.” 

Adora averted her eyes and shrugged. She hadn’t rehearsed this part _._ “Well, more like she used me. But this isn’t about me right now,” she deflected and refocused her attention on Catra. 

“Yes- yes, it is. How do you feel? Are you mad, too? Are you sad? Do you...do you miss her?” Catra lifted up out of Adora’s arms to face her. She tried to keep her voice steady, but her sculpted brows sunk in brooding. 

Adora didn’t know how to answer that. With everything going on with the reconstruction of Etheria and preparations for their first space mission, it’s not like she had much time to sit and unpack her every emotion in grand detail. 

“You do, don’t you? Of course you do.” Catra’s eyes narrowed a bit. 

Adora couldn’t tell if there was resentment behind her eyes or if Catra was simply trying to read her. Either way, it made her chest tighten. “I just…” Her focus drifted off into the distance, as if she could find the words she was looking for tacked on the far wall. “I don’t know what to say.” Her grey-blue eyes reconnected with Catra’s gold-blue eyes just in time to watch them flare in frustration because that was, of course, the last thing she wanted her to say.

Something between a sigh and a low growl emitted from somewhere deep in Catra’s throat, and she tore herself off of the bed. “Just say it.” With her arms crossed in front of her and her chin raised, Catra braced herself for the painful truth she assumed was coming her way.

Dark blonde brows furrowed in genuine confusion. “Say what?” 

“I know you think it’s my fault she’s dead!” she blurted, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Adora’s mouth opened and closed a few times until her voice finally found her. “Catra, what?!”

“What? I mean, how could you not? You two were always up each other’s- I mean, you were her _favorite_.” She’d begun pacing at this point. “And if I hadn’t left the hideout that night or if I killed that stupid bug thing in time, she’d still be here to kiss your ass!” 

“Do you really think I wa-” Adora’s hand drew to her chest in rebuttal, but before she could get her thoughts through, Catra exploded.

“Just admit that you miss her and that you blame me for it!” Her hands sliced the air in an aggressive motion. Her eyes were feral. 

Adora breathed a laugh of disbelief. “That’s _not_ true!” The space between her ears suddenly felt like they were on fire. “I’m sorry, but...that’s crazy!”

“Ugh!” Catra buried her hands in her hair before slamming them onto the mattress on either side of Adora, bringing her face dangerously close to kiss-or-kill range. “Do _not_ call me crazy! I’m not being _paranoid_ ,” she panted. She’d had enough of being told that what she was feeling wasn’t real, and she was not going to let Adora do it to her now. “You have no idea what it was like watching the two people you care about most always choose each other over you!” 

“I never once chose her over you! How can you say that? She-” Adora found it harder and harder to breathe, and her words came out ragged. “Okay, I don’t exactly miss her, but I am allowed to be sad about her, too, right?! Aren’t I? You’re not the only one who’s allowed to feel these things, you know!” It was only then that she registered the tears gushing down her own face. She didn’t know when they’d formed, but there was no stopping them, and she didn’t bother. Adora surrendered to the relentless force of her own grief. The shame of failure overcame her.

Catra eased back. The guilt she felt from seeing Adora so visibly upset put a crack in her defenses, and she found herself swimming between the realms of the need to justify her own pain and the urge to relieve Adora of hers. “I didn’t say that! That’s not what I meant. You’re twisting my words, Adora!” 

“Then what are you saying?!” The blonde snapped. Her question was met with silence. “You know, there are a lot of things I could blame you for, but Shadow Weaver isn’t one of them,” Adora spat. 

“I...” Catra froze. Besides their initial fights on the ship, Adora had never thrown her past actions back at her, though she had every right to. Her mind felt like it was chasing its own tail, and all thoughts that floated to the surface were sure to only make things worse. The flame within her dimmed, and Catra found herself back on the bed, her head buried into her hands. She drew them down to inspect them. _(Palm up, palm down, palm up. Clench. Unclench.)_ As she stared at her black claws, a montage of everything they’d done - that she’d done - played in her mind. The lump in her throat wouldn’t budge.

Adora turned her face away from her, placing her focus on using her forearm to get rid of the tears and snot that had spilled. 

Catra cracked an eye at her and couldn’t help but give a light snort despite the tension. “Gross.”

“Shut up,” Adora threw back without any hesitation. still fervently swiping away at any teardrops that marked her. 

Her shortness stung Catra and amused her all at the same time. She wordlessly reached out her hand to sit on top of Adora’s free one, and when she didn’t pull away, Catra tightened her grip. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. Apologies - genuine apologies - didn’t feel quite right on her tongue yet, but she was working with Perfuma on how to be a more “effective communicator”. “That...that wasn’t fair to you. I’m sorry.” 

Just when Catra was sure she wasn’t going to respond, Adora spoke up in a somber tone. “Shadow Weaver tried to keep us apart for years. We can’t let her do it to us now.” 

Catra scooched closer to cradle Adora’s face in her hands and delicately removed the remaining wetness from her flushed face. “We won’t.” 

There was an element of confidence in Catra’s husky voice that calmed Adora, and she returned the gesture. So there they sat, wiping each other's tears away born from a pain that would never quite leave them. 

“I wish you did blame me.”

Adora was almost afraid to ask, but, “Why?”

"'Cause then I might not feel so crazy...for blaming myself.” Satisfied with her cleaning job, Catra toyed with the ends of her golden hair. “I think about her. All the time.”

“So do I... but Catra,” She gazed into her mismatched eyes with a warm intensity. “You didn’t do anything wrong. None of that was your fault, and you never deserved the way she treated you. If I have to repeat this to you every day until the day I die, I will.” 

_Too soon, Adora_ , Catra thought.

Adora cleared her throat. “The last time she and I spoke, I told her I’d never forgive her. It was right after you left…” Catra’s eyes widened and drooped in a single breath. Adora gave her knees a light squeeze in reassurance. “But now I feel like I have to,” she sighed.

“But do you want to?” Catra asked. Her expression was open now. The storm behind her eyes had cleared. 

Adora observed every emotion running through her like she was perusing a file cabinet until she nodded solemnly. “Not for her sake. I just don’t want to feel like this for the rest of my life. Not when I can’t do anything about it.” 

Catra bit the inside of her cheek and tried to reconcile with the towering menace of shadows and the silky caresses and the darkness overtaking her as air left her body and the memories she could never trust and _I am so proud of you, Catra_. “I think I need more time...” A drop of shame laced her words. She didn’t have Adora’s heart. 

“Hey, that’s okay. You don’t owe her anything.” Adora’s hand met Catra’s cheek again. Her thumb lightly grazed it, telling her something in a language only they could understand. “You’re still a good person.” 

Catra swore Adora could pierce right through her. No one else had ever said those words to her, and that shook her to her core. Adora’s praise rattled around in her mind clunkily, but she chose to accept it. She crawled forward to settle into Adora’s lap and tucked herself in the crook of her neck, which Adora accepted seamlessly. _I don’t deserve this._

“I think… I think we deserve to be happy, whatever that means.”

What, could She-Ra read minds now?

“When I was on my way to the Heart, I saw Mara,” Adora continued. “Well, I guess it was a simulation of her? Like, when we were trapped in the- anyway. She told me that I deserved love, and before that, I could never let myself consider… And she asked me what I wanted-”

“Ha! Good luck, lady.” 

“And all I could think about was you driving me crazy for the rest of my life.” Adora squeezed the girl in her arms tighter in retaliation. 

“Oh? I drive you crazy?” Catra smirked, more than eager for any opportunity to get Etheria’s hero all riled up. “Do I drive you _wild_?” She purred in Adora’s ear. Pride filled her little feline heart when she heard Adora’s breath hitch, and soon they were nose to nose.

“We can- we can go back to kissing now, if you want.” Adora’s bright voice dropped low and velvety in a way that Catra found especially exciting, but she was never one for the easy way in. 

“You know, I appreciate the offer, but all this feelings talk has made me... _hungry_.” Catra, with a familiar glint in her eye and a clear motive on her mind, slid down the bed.

After all these years, Adora’s body registered what was happening before her mind could. Her muscles tensed in anticipation.

“Race you to the kitchen.” Ah, there it was, and before Adora could muster a response, Catra bounded towards the door on all fours.

“Oh, come _on_ , you never play fair!” Adora sped after her with all her might, gaining ground.

“Then you should know what to expect by now! Better keep up, princess!” Catra cackled.

The couple crashed out of the room with such fervor that they didn’t even notice the other half of their best friend squad oh-so casually whistling and walking in the other direction, having not-been eavesdropping for the past half hour. 

Catra snuck a glance behind and was pleased to find that she was leaving Adora in the dust. As she rapidly approached a corridor up ahead, an idea popped in her head, and there was no way she was passing up such a rare opportunity. This time she had no intention of tripping or tricking her fair-haired idiot. She just wanted to get her own personal kick out of watching the love of her life bound to the kitchen, full of oblivious, manic fury in pursuit of victory, only to realize Catra was nowhere to be seen. 

Catra kept an eye out with her body pressed against the wall. _3...2...1. And there she blows…_ Flush-faced and huffing, Adora sprinted across the hall with perfect form. She looked so _stupid_. Catra stifled a giggle behind her hand, stepping out from the shadows to trail behind her at a leisurely pace. She stealthily peered into the ornate kitchen to find Adora’s eyes bouncing around the room in a baffled frenzy like the lovable dummy she was. “Uhhh...Catra?” 

A low taunting chuckle rumbled from Catra’s chest as she slid into the room. “Looks like you win,” she drawled. She even slow-clapped to drive the point home.

“Well, it’s not fun if you let me,” Adora rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her. 

“Aww, but it’s fun for me,” she cooed, wrapping her arms around Adora’s neck, letting them rest on her sturdy shoulders. Adora’s hands gravitated to her hips on instinct, and there it was again: _that_ look. Catra grinned her signature shit-eating grin and nuzzled her nose against the taller girl’s. “You know you’re never getting rid of me, right?” 

Adora’s blue eyes lifted towards the sky and her lips stretched into a smile despite herself. “That’s okay.” She planted a feather-light kiss to Catra’s nose, then a kiss full of purpose to her forehead. “I don’t ever want to.” She pulled Catra in tighter, and they melted into each other with no intention of letting go anytime soon.

Catra wasn’t supposed to win. Adora wasn’t supposed to _live_...

“Hey, remember when we saved the universe with our love? What was that all about?”

“Shut up. You’re such an idiot.” 

...But thank the stars they did. 

**Author's Note:**

> daydreamed about this scene, so i thought i'd try my hand at a fic.
> 
> also, quaking at the fact that noelle's written a one-shot. (ifyouseethisnoellethankyouyourshowchangedmylife.)
> 
> also, black lives matter always and always and always. 
> 
> stay safe.


End file.
